Accountancy

Audit firms scramble for top talent as students favour consultancy

Amid fierce competition for talent, major accountancy firms are casting their nets wider in order to entice school leavers and graduates to consider careers in the less glamorous world of audit

A smaller percentage of graduates is applying for accountancy jobs
A smaller percentage of graduates is applying for accountancy jobs Photo: Getty Images

To the students filling the octagonal ex-library on Queen Mary University of London’s Mile End campus on a dreary day in October, the chance of seeing the evening’s star speaker was too good to miss.

Student after student rose to ask questions of PwC’s UK boss Kevin Ellis. At the end of the event, he was mobbed as if he were a shiny young K-pop singer, rather than a middle-aged accountant from Chingford.

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